COUNTY     LOUTH

This part of the website is to list some items I came across etc., over the years, that may be of interest to people in County Louth. Some are already elsewhere on the website but are brought together here under the heading of ‘Ideas for Development’.

          History and genealogy have been looked on, in general, as a pastime rather than an economic source and as a means of developing an area. This was true especially when the Celtic Tiger raged. This is now no longer and people have to look to other means as a source of employment. While I am not suggestion that people set up private businesses, as competitors of mine, but rather that the information gained through researching your own family or place can be used for further development either for your business or your area etc..

          I, like anyone with a website, is well aware of how items can be copied, re-copied with some changes and re-copied like gossip raging around an area, in order to get something online that can be found by search engines or as an ego building exercise. Like the well known advertisement currently on TV relating to Guinness. The salutation starts off as ‘To Arthur’ but goes on to ‘To Martha’ etc etc. . What follows hopefully will not be used in that way but rather by people looking for an idea to develop their area or create employment or extra income for themselves or their families. For example a hotel or guest house might specifically target areas abroad that people from County Louth emigrated to or maybe specific events in history, or maybe a person is creative and finds an idea from the caricatures in newspapers, clothes designs etc..

          If you wish me to locate information, of a historic or genealogical nature, on your area or district then go to the Services provided page.

          First, however, since it is over ninety years since our War of Independence, an item in a local history on a USA county might provide some food for thought. It was published in 1876, approximately ninety-three years after the War of Independence there, and starts:

'Truth is the mother of history, the preserver of great actions, the enemy of oblivion, the witness of the past, the director of the future....
To write the history of an Eastern power, the recorder follows the ruler as the representative of government, exposes his intrigues, blazons his deeds, and measures his renown by the number and severity of his wars. In America, the nation is a conclusion, and true history begins with the people acting as the arbiters of their own destiny, and framing their fabric of free government by the action of communities in frequent meetings, and delegating certain powers to the State and General Government. Viewed in this light, the history of a county rises in importance; and while it affords a laudable gratification to the citizen, it serves as an index of the source and means by which a free people have become great. All classes are arousing from their apathy concerning the past, and men are asking, What part have our ancestors played in this drama, and where does our county, as a community, stand?

(Source: History of Seneca Co., New York, With illustrations, descriptive of its scenery, Palatial Residences, Public Buldings, Fine Blocks and Important Manufactories, Philadelphia, Everts, Ensign & Everts, 1876, republished by W.E. Morrison & Co., Ovid, New York, page 5, Allen County Library Genealogy Center.)